Daily Meditations
Always waiting
God
I say that I seek you
But is that true?
I look for you
In the noise
Of mindless music
The television’s endless voice
Drowns out
Your voice
I hunt for you
By being in charge
By filling each moment
By running away
When things are good
I don’t remember you
Or call for you
When I am lonely
Or sad
Or afraid
I cry to you
Knowing that
No matter how
I ignore you
You will listen
And answer
My cry
There are times in our lives when we begin to think that God isn’t helping us….or that God isn’t even there. Those times are hard. From an early age I have felt that God was with me….most of the time. Sometimes when I am anxious and I can’t seem to “feel” God with me I am lost. I don’t know what to do. Is everything that I believed a lie? I am cast into a deep dark hole. I am in the “valley of the shadow of death.” I am not just anxious but afraid. My worst fears raise their ugly heads and take hold of me.
When I am like that I can’t pray. I am so far down that prayer won’t come. I am lost. Then I remember that I have a community of faith who pray daily and that their prayers rise like smoke to God and God reaches down to me and helps me. I may not “feel” his presence since feelings ebb and flow but he is there. And somehow I am comforted.
There are definitely times when we can’t pray for ourselves. That’s why we need others who will pray for us.
Psalm 34:4-6
4 I sought the Lord, and he answered me,
and delivered me from all my fears.
5 Look to him, and be radiant;
so your[a] faces shall never be ashamed.
6 This poor soul cried, and was heard by the Lord,
and was saved from every trouble.
I don’t know about you but I tend to worry. I know that I should turn my worries over to the Lord and let them go but I am not good at it. I will turn it over and then pick it back up again. I do this over and over. How ridiculous this is!
God will hear us when we cry to him. He will answer. Don’t keep picking things back up. Worry is a waste.
Religion tends to prefer and protect the status quo or the supposedly wonderful past, yet what we now see is that religion often simply preserves its own power and privilege. God does not need our protecting. We often worship old things as substitutes for eternal things.
Richard Rohr
A study that I attended was about how people view God. Each of us has our own view and to define it can be difficult. There are some people for who God is part of something visual. They may feel closer to God in the church they have attended all their lives. The only difficulty comes when something in that building is changed. The connection can be shaken. That is why changing something we have associated with our faith all our lives can be so distressing.
We can’t stay connected to the past. We have to live in the present. The words of the service may change, the building may change but our faith must stay connected to Jesus Christ himself.
In my deepest, darkest moments, what really got me through was a prayer. Sometimes my prayer was ‘Help me.’ Sometimes a prayer was ‘Thank you.’ What I’ve discovered is that intimate connection and communication with my creator will always get me through because I know my support, my help, is just a prayer away.
Iyanla Vanzant
A friend of mine always said that the person that you know best is the one you spend the most time with. It is true. This should encourage us to spend time with God. God already knows us but we have much to learn.
Speak to God, pray to God, take him along every day.
All your life you’ve been getting ready for now. The light is probably dawning on you – what God is calling you to be and do – and you could easily feel overwhelmed. But God is the source of the light, and God is behind the dawning. There will be provision. Go ahead.
-Br. Curtis Almquist
Society of Saint John the Evangelist
sometimes we know deep down in our heart that God is calling us. He may be calling us to something that we really don’t want to do. It does remind me of Moses who certainly had no idea about freeing the people of Israel. Sometimes what he’s calling us to do seems something that we are incapable of. But there is nothing that we cannot do with God. Listen for that voice. Hear God calling. And answer.
1 Corinthians 2:14 The Message 14 The unspiritual self, just as it is by nature, can’t receive the gifts of God’s Spirit. There’s no capacity for them. They seem like so much silliness. Spirit can be known only by spirit—God’s Spirit and our spirits in open communion.
Do we really take the time to get to know God? We get to know people by spending time with them. We can’t know those that we stay away from. There are so many ways to spend time with God. We can meet in prayer, in silence, in church, and any other place that we choose. God is waiting for us. God is always ready. It is up to us.
Prayer: God, our companion on the way, help us to seek you in everything that we do. You are always there. We are the ones who back away. Remind us to spend time with you.
As we sit and wait to see what Hurricane Dorian will do I drew on one of the many verses in the Bible that tells us to rest in the arms of God. It is amazing how many verses remind us that God is with us at all times.
Today as I watched the forecast for the hurricane I thought about how to pray about it. Normally I would just pray that the storm would not hit us but then I thought how selfish that prayer is. As I wishing that I would hit someone else? It does look as if it will land somewhere on the southern coast so I need to direct my prayers in a different way.
Lord, guard and keep all those who are in the path of Hurricane Dorian. Give them strength and courage during the storm. Help them as they recover from any damage and give them the strength to help others as well. Hold in your loving arms those in the tropics who have been hit so hard in the recent past and help us to aid them where we can. We pray in your Holy Name. AMEN
Hear God in Other Voices 